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Why Eddie Jones' arrival has given Reds star 'a lot more hope'
By AAP
A pre-season trial game in rural NSW shapes as a critical moment in Harry Wilson's rugby career.
The Queensland Reds No.8 fell out of favour with former Wallabies coach Dave Rennie but admits Eddie Jones's shock arrival in a World Cup year has offered him a "lot more hope".
And Jones will be in the stands in Narrabri on Saturday when the NSW Waratahs host the Reds in their final Super Rugby Pacific trial game.
Like high-profile Reds prop Taniela Tupou, Wilson is off contract beyond 2023 and has seen former teammates Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, Brandon Paenga-Amosa and Angus Scott-Young depart recently for Europe.
Wilson scored twice in the trial victory over the Western Force in Perth last weekend and says he'd love to remain at Ballymore.
But with the British and Irish Lions touring in 2025 and a home World Cup in 2027, the 23-year-old wants to know where he sits in the Wallabies' flanker depth charts before making his decision.
"I want to play well at the start of the Super season and go from there," he said.
"It (Jones's arrival) gives everyone in Australian rugby - and someone like me who's been in and out for a few years - a lot more hope.
"With new eyes watching it's only good for my opportunities and any performance in front of him (Jones) is only going to help you.
"Definitely (playing for the Wallabies this year will be a factor in his contract decision).
"But I'm very aware I won't get picked if I don't play well here."
The Reds named a near-full strength squad for the clash with former Melbourne NRL winger Suliasi Vunivalu, another fringe Wallaby, keen to impress Jones after two injury-hit seasons since his code switch.
Five-eighth James O'Connor was named to play but is likely to be rested as he completes the final stages of his recovery from off-season ankle surgery.
Former Wallabies lock and off-season signing Luke Jones (neck) is another injury concern ahead of their February 25 season opener in Townsville, as is fellow lock Angus Blyth (ankle).
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Stephen Larkham, Mick Byrne, Scott Wisental, Ben Mowen, Les Kiss, Jim McKay, Rod Kafer.
There are plenty of great Australian coaches who could do a better job than Schmidt.
Go to commentsThis piece is nothing more than the result of revisionist fancy of Northern Hemisphere rugby fans. Seeing what they want to see, helped but some surprisingly good results and a desire to get excited about doing something well.
I went back through the 6N highlights and sure enough in every English win I remembered seeing these exact holes on the inside, that are supposedly the fallout out of a Felix Jones system breaking down in the hands of some replacement. Every time the commentators mentioned England being targeted up the seam/around the ruck or whatever. Each game had a try scored on the inside of the blitz, no doubt it was a theme throughout all of their games. Will Jordan specifically says that Holland had design that move to target space he saw during their home series win.
Well I'm here to tell you they were the same holes in a Felix Jones system being built as well. This woe is now sentiment has got to stop. The game is on a high, these games have been fantastic! It is Englands attack that has seen their stocks increase this year, and no doubt that is what SB told him was the teams priority. Or it's simply science, with Englands elite players having worked towards a new player welfare and management system, as part of new partnership with the ERU, that's dictating what the players can and can't put their bodies through.
The only bit of truth in this article is that Felix is not there to work on fixing his defence. England threw away another good chance of winning in the weekend when they froze all enterprise under pressure when no longer playing attacking footy for the second half. That mindset helped (or not helped if you like) of course by all this knee jerk, red brained criticism.
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